NGRBA officials' resignation not accepted: Narayanasamy

New Delhi, March 23 (IANS) The resignation of the three National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) officials has not been accepted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who chairs the body, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V. Narayanasamy said Friday.

Speaking to IANS on the sidelines of a function, Narayanasamy said: "The honourable Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has not accepted the resignation of the three officials of the NGRBA. They will also be called for the delegation meeting of NGRBA April 17."

Claiming that NGRBA had become insensitive and had made no change to the government's neglect of the national river Ganga, NGRBA chairman Rajendra Singh, a Magsaysay award winner also known as "the Waterman" resigned last week.

Apart from him, two other members of the NGRBA's policy-making apex council, Ravi Chopra, director of the Dehradun-based People's Science Institute, and Rashid Hyatt Siddiqui, former Aligarh Muslim University professor also resigned over the issue.

"We haven't heard anything from the government since we sent our resignation," said Singh.

However, the government Friday agreed to call a meeting of NGRBA, a central government constituted body for cleaning the Ganga, on April 17.

The government move came in view of the 80-year-old environmental activist G.D. Agarwal, who has been on a fast-unto-death since Jan 15 to save the Ganga river. Agarwal ended his fast after the government agreed to call a meeting of the NGRBA.

Union Coal Minister Shriprakash Jaiswal and Narayanasamy met the activist Friday at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here and assured him that the government is ready to accept his demands.